| far from the maddening crowd: A phrase taken from "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", a poem by Thomas Gray and used by Thomas Hardy as a title for his novel. Gray's poem is a meditation on "the short and simple annals of the poor" who live in a pastoral setting far from the temptations and possibilities of power and glory, Fatal Attraction: A 1987 movie thriller directed by Adrian Lyne and starrting Glenn Close as a sexy,obsessive "other woman" relentlessly pursuing an unwilling married man (Michael Douglas) after an unfortunate one-night stand. She subjects his, his wife and his child to a reign of terror that ends only with her death. The term 'Fatal Attraction" has since been widely used for any obsessive and damaging relationship, as in this Newsweek headline: Teacher, Lover, Schemer, Killer? The "Fatal Attraction" Murder Trial. Fifth Avenue: Street of fashionable shops and department stores (Cartier, Tiffany, Gucci, Bergdorf, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord and Taylor, and many others) from 34th Street to 59th Street in Manhattan. It is the route of the Easter parade in which people show off their new spring outfits, as in the popular 1933 song by Irving Berlin. From 59th Street north, it borders on Central Park and becomes a street of fine residences and museums. Fifth Avenue is a symbol of elegance and affluence. flower children: Young hippies of the 1960's counterculture who would offer a flower to policemen or military personel as a symbol of their nonviolent,pacifist beliefs. Their slogan was "make love, not war". The term is often used to describe people with naively idealistic views or a style of dress reminiscent of the 1960's. Flanders fields: Cemetry in Belgium where white crosses mark the graves of Allied soldiers fallen in World War I. The place has been immortalized in a poem written by the Canadian poet John McCrae (1872-1918). The poem begins: In flanders fileds the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place. Fountain of Youth: A legendry, much sought after fountain said to be located, among other places, in Bimini, in the Bahamas. The fountain, it was widely believed, had the power to bestow eternal youth on those who bathed in it's magical waters. Juan Ponce de Leon (1460-1521), a Spanish explorer, set sail in 1512 in search of the fountain. He never found it. "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" Rhett Butler's final words of rejection to Scarlett O'Hara pleas of helplessness in Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel of the Civil War, Gone With the Wind, (1936). The two were played by Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in a 1939 movie. "Fire and Ice" Often quoted literally to refer to death of the planet Earth by atomic warfare or a new ice age, the term refers to a short poem by Robert Frost (1875-1963), which begins: Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. |